Leonard Blavatnik arrived in New York in the seventies dead-ass broke. (Just like our friend Elie Tahari!) But investments in oil fields, copper, and other businesses made him insanely rich, rich enough to drop 41 million pounds on an estate in London and now $150 million bucks on an apartment at The Mark at 77th and Madison, the most money that anyone has ever paid for a place in New York. So what will it get him? Well! The following to be read in the voice of Robin Leach: A personal lift will take Blavatnik up to his 30,000 square foot, 23-bedroom space, the a combination of what would have been five separate units on the top three floors of the building. The place has 26-foot ceilings, some of which are made with landmarked copper, and some of which have skylights. There's also 3,900 square feet of outdoor space, including a 2,300-square-foot roof terrace with a fireplace. Oh, and there are fireplaces inside, too, multiple fireplaces even though there is also naturally central heat and air-conditioning, along with assorted other amenities, such as a full-size gym, and twice-daily maid service, fresh linens, and room service. Appliances include but are not limited to a Gaggenau oven (which retails for around $5,000) and Sub-Zero refrigerator and two-zone wine cooler. Last but not least, the hotel's Website states that the bathrooms are "sumptuous" and complete with bidets. Which we guess proves once and for all that, no, Russian billionaires do not conduct their bathroom business quite like the rest of us.
UPDATE: Right, so this is maybe not exactly true. "A letter of intent was signed for those units and that's the story. It doesn't mean he bought it," Post reporter Braden Keil tells Gawker.READ MORE »

You haven't, by any chance, been feeling rich lately, have you? Sort of feeling a little bit smug that the burst of the real-estate bubble won't splatter all over you? At least a little bit excited that in November, your every-other-Friday paycheck will come three times instead of twice? Well, just in time for all that, Forbes has released its annual list of the 400 richest people in America. And guess what? Sixty-four of them are New Yorkers! The top 100 billionaires, in fact, include household (okay, apartment-hold) names like shareholder activist Carl Icahn, Revlon CEO Ron Perelman, designer Ralph Lauren, Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse oh yeah, and Mayor Bloomberg, who at $11.5 billion is America's 25th richest man. According to Forbes, he more than doubled his wealth from last year, which was enough to leapfrog over rival media magnate Rupert Murdoch in the ranks.
READ MORE »PREV1NEXT